Page 95 of Double Down

Her eyes widen, then narrow and tighten at the corners. Her head shakes a little, as if to refute the statement. I pinch her chin between my fingers, holding her gaze with mine as Con withdraws and then slams back inside of her.

She moans so loudly that I’m sure she’s going to have trouble talking tomorrow.

“Take it, angel. Every bit of him, every bit of me…Mav and Atticus—you’re worth it all. No one takes care of us the way you do, and nothing’s gonna stop us from keeping you.”

A tear tracks down her cheek.

“Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

She nods, her eyes locked on me even as Con’s next thrust slides her several inches across the desk.

I smile darkly and slide two fingers to her lips. “Now open that pretty mouth and clean the mess you made.”

Her mouth is perfect. Even as Con pounds her through another shattering orgasm, she sucks me clean, milking every drop.

Afterward, the three of us catch our breath on the leather sofa, Phoenix nestled boneless and sleepy between us. She’s wrecked, and for once I feel a rare, quiet kind of peace settle deep in my bones.

And then Con’s cell rings.

I glare. He’s already answering, voice low so he doesn’t wake her. As he listens, the color drains from his face.

I know before he turns to me that our moment of peace is over.

23

Phoenix

Orgasms from Stormand Conrad together should come with a warning label.

The shrill tone of Conrad’s phone pulls me out of the blissful haze I’ve slipped into. I want it to stop. Whatever’s waiting on the other end of that call is going to end with both men getting up and leaving me, and I don’t want them to move. For what feels like the first time in days, I’m finally relaxed.

I don’t know if it’s because of what Storm whispered to me—how he gave my insecurities a voice and purged them from my body—or because of how hard he made me come apart for him.

It felt like my cells split open and rewove. It was incredible. Cathartic.

Cathartic—and exhausting. I’m stretched across both of them now, and I don’t want to move.

Con answers the phone, and I feel Storm tense under me. He doesn’t like it any more than I do. This should be our time together. A way to find just a sliver of peace.

My first instinct is to burrow into the cushions and keep my eyes closed. My head rests in Con’s lap, his hand working absentmindedly through my hair. I refuse to move, or even look up, not when his fingers curl just enough to make me feel tethered to something steady.

Con used to be kind, gentle, loving. I miss that sweet boy. He was still a Titan, but there was this worshipful softness reserved for me that made me feel special. At least until I ran away from him and found out there’s no getting over how I felt. How I’ll always feel.

I don’t deserve his kindness anymore. And there’s something strangely gratifying about having the meaner, tougher version of Con wrapping his body around mine. It lets me separate myself from the people we were and the monster I’ve turned into. Getting a small glimpse of his kindness does its job.

Even in the post-orgasm haze, it drags me back to reality.

After all, I’m just theminder, the girl who’s here for the paycheck, the ex-girlfriend who’ll do anything for the almighty dollar…and I deserve Con’s scorn, not his tenderness.

That doesn’t mean I won’t savor every fucking second of the tenderness he offers. It’s now, in moments like this, when I can pretend that I didn’t walk away. That I could be the woman who deserves Conrad, or Maverick, or Storm, or Atticus. But I’m not. I’m not good enough for any of them, let alone all of them.

So I’ll be greedy and steal this time for myself. This memory I can wrap around myself for the rest of my life. I’m not ready for this moment to end. I’m not ready to think about the end.

I keep my eyes closed and figuratively plug my ears, telling myself not to listen. His call is his business. If he wants me to know, he’ll tell me.

Except my head is literally in his lap and his voice rumbles over me.

His tone shifts the second he answers. “Yeah?”